Technical Field
This disclosure relates to systems-on-a-chip (SOCs), and more particularly to security on SOCs.
Description of the Related Art
Because SOCs incorporate significant functionality in a small form factor, and because SOCs can be made power efficient, SOCs have become popular devices to include in portable electronic devices such a portable phones (cell phones), smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, etc. These portable electronic devices now have significant processing power and are increasingly being used for financial management and transactions, user communications other than voice (text, email, web browsing, etc.), streaming video, etc. Accordingly, SOCs may operate on private user data as well as data belonging to others (e.g., copyrighted audio, video, and still images). Therefore, the security of the SOC and its ability to resist attacks meant to compromise secure data are becoming increasingly important features.
Some SOCs may utilize encryption to restrict access to secure data. The use of encryption, however, may necessitate a transfer of a keyword used for encrypting and decrypting the secure data between the SOC and a component with which the secure data is being shared. The use of the keyword, however, may introduce a vulnerability to attacks.